LBS charge for gluing tubular?
 

I asked a couple LBS here and both said $50...seems high to me as my tire cost $50!


How hard is DIY gluing for a newbie?

What glue would you recommend as easiest to use?

Plenty of good info out there on glueing tubulars, both videos and in print. This one is representative, and not bad. You can do it yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGw3DlZMRGI

The glue recommended here is good stuff.

I guess they expect anyone willing to use tubulars is going to learn how to do it themselves. Tubulars are typically not used by noobys .

I was a noob when I first used them, lo these many years ago. Gotta learn new things sometime.

Questions of legal liability make many mechanics uncomfortable with gluing tires for people. Plus it can be a time consuming process depending on the glue used. Even 45 years ago, the shop I worked for resisted mounting tubulars, except when setting up a new bike, or for a few regular customers who were known not to be complainers. We also felt that tire mounting was a rider's responsibility and pushed people very hard to do this for themselves. If pushed we would mount tires, but charged exorbitantly. If people complained, we reminded them that we didn't want to do it in the first place.

Some shops will mount tires bought from them, and I agree that the price quoted is high, but maybe they're sending you a message to do your own, as you would need to on the road.

The legal climate affects the availability of low cost jobs with high potential for lawsuit. I dive using mixed gasses. Filling a tank is about $10.00 or so, but no reputable shop will fill a tank for you unless you have a gas analyzer to verify the mix yourself, and countersign the receipt before leaving. After all, who wants to face a wrongful death lawsuit arising out of a $10.00 sale.

if you run Tubs , buy tires by the dozen , since mending punctures becomes something you put off
Till later, and put on another tire then you devote a day to patching and restitching the batch ..

last time i had mechanical work done on my motorcycle it was $95 an hour or partial hour. IME, bike shops cost less than that per hour. i don't know how long it takes to mount 2 tubulars but i wouldn't be surprised if it takes 1/2 hour or so. if so, the price is in the ballpark, which is why people learn to do it themselves.

Not hard, takes practice to get good at it. Takes time too, not something to rush.

We can all certainly understand this, but I wonder if anybody's ever really been sued for a negligent glue job (besides not gluing at all - which WOULD be negligent).

There's no knowing if anybody has ever been sued, or ended up making a settlement. However, whenever a tire rolls (which can happen for a variety of reasons) the glue job is first up to be blamed. Read the various threads here about glue rituals, and know that no dealer is going to do all that,m unless he charges dearly.

Years ago I used to import tubulars for a number of years, and a brand of glue for them. The two went hand in hand, and my products liability coverage included both together as a single class. Later when I stopped the tires, I continued selling the glue. However my insurance rate didn't drop, so with a miniscule base to spread it out on, selling the glue became a losing proposition and I ended it.

So, for many, gluing tires is a possible source of acrimony (if not lawsuit) and not worth it except for known clients.

I recently paid $50 to have a wheel trued and glued.

It was not a glue job but I do know of one specific case where a person tried to sue a company who made stems because their bar failed. The person over torqued the stem and their carbon bar failed because of it, even though the person who installed the stem (the same person trying to sue) failed to do it properly they still tried to sue a very reputable component manufacturer.

In short, people will try to sue for nearly anything even if they are clearly in the wrong so often times it is the best business move to play it safe. Most shops do not have much of a demand for tubulars anyways so they are often times not even well practiced even if they are a quality shop and the risk of rolling a tire off a rim outweighs the reward of making a few bucks gluing a tire on.

The other reason I know some shops charge a lot to do it, is they simply have no desire to mess with it, especially if it is a used rim and/or tire since even though it is not a hard job, it is a pain getting things really clean.

I don't glue them, and if I never do, I'll be just fine. Another mechanic at the shop does, and it takes longer than 1/2 hour even for one, and there is overnight waiting involved.

It's another one of those jobs where no customer would ever ask a shop to do it if a shop charged at hourly shop rate for the time it actually takes to do it. Shops lose money mounting tubulars.

OP, did you ask the shop where you bought the tires what they would charge to mount them beforehand...?

50 bucks is about the norm around here. Once you watch the videos, and do a little research on the web, I'm sure you will feel confident enough t do it your self. It's not rocket science.
FYI: I do my tires the old skool way 24/12/12 and use Vittoria Mastik glue - best on the market. No issue yet of 20+ years of using tubs.
Cheers

Being self employed, I have found one way to select the type of work I do and that is by pricing. TUBULARS can be very intensive , a royal PITA and messy to boot. IMO if you ride tubulars it is best to assume the risk yourself , considering it is your skin at risk.

I musta gone to an older skool. We just spread mastik, let it set up for a minute or two, then mounted the tire into the wet, inflated it to settle and straightened it. 20 minutes or less later we were good to go.

WTF is 24/12/12?

christmas eve, a couple of years back? :twitchy:

WTH is "WTF is 24/12/12?" Is not knowing it THAT stressful? :roflmao2:

Christmas eve is one of the possibilities according to hueyhoolihan :p

No one is mentioning tape rather than glue? (I have no experience with it.) I always used FBNY's method and only rollled a tire once as a result of going down, never as the cause, but I never raced. I let the glue dry longer now because the solvent in some rim glues seems to dissolve the glue attaching the seam tape on some tires. I do not use brands consistently and can't remember which brands have that problem, but I think combining Vittoria (tires?) and Continental (glue?) have been problematic.

60 per wheel. it takes time to glue them

the adhesion properties of tape are not good. always let the glue cure and off gas for 24 hrs. mastik one or conti glues are the only ones that are worth using

I don't know what's currently sold, but there used to be tape with excellent adhesion. The tape was also nice in that it stayed tacky for months, making for fast mounting on the road, with the ability to ride immediately. The main reason that I and others preferred glue to tape, wasn't adhesion, but because the tape would often stick to the tire and get moved over or folded on itself when repositioning the tire. Once the tape shifted, it was a PIA to get things right again.

One thing that separates casual road riders from track and supported racers is the need to change tires in the field and riding immediately. That was a plus for tape. You could carry a roll, wind it on the rim, mount the tire and ride immediately. One maker even sold a tape with one sided backed with film. You taped the rim, mounted the tire, inflated to about 2atm, seated, then when all was right pulled out the film.

Otherwise, glue users like myself, need glue that stays tacky enough for a reliable field remount. The stuff I use, allowed about 2 tire changes before fresh glue was needed, so there wasn't a need to carry glue except for long multi-day tours.

BTW- I'm still curious about what Cycledogg meant by old skool 24/12/12

I think the Czech company Tufo offers a double stick tape for Tubulars , as well as their own tires .
one version, a tubular that has rings around it's inside, to grip clincher rim edges ..

Same here. 15 minutes or so with a pre-stretched tire, once you have some practice.

I can understand not wanting to glue tires for others.

It is a lot like folding parachutes. You do your own so you know they are done right. There is no recourse in event of a failure.

If you can't do your own, don't ride tubulars. They are not the only choice. Dead simple.

Exactly. I'm not employed in the bike industry but I would never glue a tubular for someone else. It's a pain and I'd be worried about it failing them. I would, however, offer them advice and stand by to watch. But I wouldn't do it for them.